Community Center Resources

About Stanford Community Centers

Stanford Community Centers provide a gateway to intellectual, cultural and leadership opportunities for all Stanford students. Each center has its own mission. Yet students seeking academic enrichment, connection to a broader community, and/or individual services and support will find excellent resources in the Community Centers.

The Asian American Activities Center (A3C) offers individual advising, a weekly lecture series and small group sessions. It sponsors the AIM program, which matches sophomores with faculty and alumni mentors. The A3C houses an extensive Asian American Resource Library containing literature, hard-to-find periodicals, newspaper clippings and reference texts. The A3C also supports more than 40 Asian American Volunteer Student Organizations on campus.

The Black Community Services Center (BCSC) offers students a variety of opportunities for intellectual exploration including faculty lectures in the Roundtable Series. BCSC provides leadership development, individual advising, service learning opportunities, and mentoring programs, and supports more than 35 Black Student Volunteer Organizations on campus. It also hosts Black Thought, a program for students working on senior honors theses.

The Diversity and First Gen Office (DGen) supports students to develop their capacity and confidence to engage with people who come from different identities and backgrounds. Within this mission is a special focus on enriching the experience of first generation college students by supporting their empowerment and sense of belonging. It partners with faculty, staff, and students to offer diversity resources and training, inter-group education through diversity labs in and out of the classroom, and a variety of community building and empowerment programs for first gen and/or low-income students. Some of the programs include the First Gen Welcome Dinner, faculty networking lunches, Diversity Dialogues, Diversity Labs, and Class on Class Talks. The DGEN Office also hires students to be Diversity Outreach Consultants.

El Centro Chicano provides leadership opportunities and development for students throughout the Stanford community. Each year, the center hosts the yearly Ernesto Galarza Lecture and Community Awards, celebrating the accomplishments of Stanford Latino students, staff, and faculty. El Centro sponsors a wide variety of Chicano/Latino organizations. These include the Chicano and Latino Graduation Committee and the Stanford Society of Chicano Latino Engineers and Scientists, among many others.

As the nexus of the LGBT campus community, the LGBT-CRC offers a range of student programs. The LGBT-CASA (Community Academic Support and Advising for Queer First-Year Students) holds new student orientation and weekly lunches for queer, questioning, and allied frosh throughout the year. LGBT SOSAS (Safe and Open Spaces at Stanford) offers student-run outreach and diversity awareness workshops. Additional opportunities include a lecture series, leadership development retreats, seminars and colloquia. The center maintains a resource library and supports a variety of student organizations on campus.

The Markaz: Resource Center for Engagement with the Cultures and Peoples of the Muslim World is unique in its cultural focus and goal of serving all students interested in Africa, the Middle East, and central, south and southeast Asia, as well as the American Muslim experience. The Markaz, whose name comes from the Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew, Turkish and Urdu word for "center," will serve as an entry point for students who want to get more information about opportunities to engage outside the classroom with the cultures, faiths and peoples of this vast region.

The Native American Cultural Center/American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Program provides a comprehensive retention program that serves both Native undergraduate and graduate students. Academic and cultural emphasis is encouraged through writing and research forums, a speakers series, workshops and cultural presentations. Leadership opportunities and mentorship relationships are encouraged, beginning with a summer immersion program. This is through alumni networking and the new First Nations Institute, which is cosponsored with Stanford faculty, the Woods Institute and Kamehameha Schools.

The Stanford Women’s Community Center (SWCC) facilitates scholarship, leadership, and activism. This is through a wide variety of programming and services that includes student leadership training, the yearly Stanford Women’s Leadership Conference, and career development services. Working closely with the Feminist Studies Program, SWCC sponsors the annual Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo and Francisco Lopes essay competitions in social sciences and humanities. The Center also collaborates with the Society of Women Engineers to provide free on-site tutoring.